Shot in the Dark by Cleo Coyle

Shot in the Dark by Cleo Coyle
April 17, 2018; Berkley
Genre: Coffeehouse Mystery #17

A new smartphone dating game turns the Village Blend into a hookup hot spot, until one dark night, when a gunshot leaves a dead body behind and the landmark coffeehouse becomes the center of a whole new scene--a crime scene. (publisher)

Book beginning:

"Shot down again..."My ex-husband dropped his hard body onto the soft stool of our crowded coffee bar, the thorny end of a long-stemmed rose still pricking his hand. "Three strikes in one night," I said. "Does that mean you're out?""No, Clare. That's another kind of ball game."

Page 56:

 "Yeah, sure, but do you think she's the jumper they're looking for upriver?"

The 17th in the series! We're following coffee house manager Clare Cosi and her ex-husband at the Village Blend in NYC, the setting of the mystery series where Clare helps solve crimes that crop up during their busy daily activities. 

This time Clare gets the help of her ex, coffee hunter Matteo Allegro, whose mother owns the coffee shop. The Village Blend becomes the meeting place for a dating app named Cinder, but a corpse lands up in the mix of would-be, hopeful young people looking for dates. Clare has to try and clear one of her customers of the murder charge and protect her other customers. 

Another mystery with intrigue, suspense, and recipes too. One of my favorite foodie mystery series!

Thanks to Berkley for a review copy of this book.

Memes: The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice. Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader

Review: Dead to the Last Drop by Cleo Coyle

Bibliophile By the Sea hosts First Chapter, First Paragraph every Tuesday. Share the first paragraph(s) of your current read or book interest, with information for readers. Also share a teaser from the book with Teaser Tuesday at A Daily Rhythm.

Dead to the Last Drop by Cleo Coyle,  published December 1, 2015 by Berkley.

Genre: cozy mystery

First chapter:"Gardner, get off the phone. "
"Why?" 
 "Just do it!"

Clare Cosi, coffeehouse manager and master roaster, has moved temporarily to Washington DC to open a new coffeehouse. She is asked to provide the coffee for a White House event, but she has to hide the fact that the President's daughter Abby has been sneaking out of the White House to play piano at the coffeehouse's weekly Open Mike jazz sessions. 

When a mysterious man dies at the coffeehouse and Abby goes missing along with the drummer Stan, Clare becomes a suspect for kidnapping and murder. Clare' boyfriend, Detective Mike Quinn takes her into hiding as Clare tries to clear her name, find the President's daughter, and get back to the business of running her coffeeshop.

Mix in DC politics into this coffeehouse mystery and you have an intriguing and suspenseful read. Kudos to Cleo Coyle for her unusual and entertaining plot and an excellent cozy read.

Teaser: (ch. 80)

"They are going to drag the river in the morning for their bodies. And it's all my fault! It's all my fault!"

Objective rating: Five stars

Thanks to the publisher for a review copy of this book. 

Book Beginning: Dead to the Last Drop by Cleo Coyle

The Friday 56. Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% of your eReader. Find any sentence that grabs you. Post it, and add your URL post in Linky at Freda's Voice.
Also visit Book Beginning at Rose City Reader.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Once Upon a Grind comes a new installment in the Coffeehouse Mystery series.

After the White House asks coffeehouse manager and master roaster Clare Cosi to consult on the coffee service for a Rose Garden Wedding, she discovers a historic pot was used as a CIA “dead drop” decades before. Now long-simmering secrets boil over, scalding Clare and the people around her…

Dead to the Last Drop by Cleo Coyle,  published December 1, 2015 by Berkley.
Book beginning, Prologue

He stomped the brake and glared at the BMW swerving into his lane. I could smash this  idiot's bumper, but it won't get me to her any faster.

Suppressing the urge to turn this SUV into a battering ram, he laid on the horn instead. It worked. The Beemer swung out of his path and he hit the gas, running the next two yellow lights.  

Page 56:

"Mike, why did you really come home early?"

What book are you eager to read this Friday?  

Sunday Salon: End of Year Reading

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also visit Mailbox Monday.

A few books came in the mail last week, after a spell of "empty mailbox." The new arrivals are two ARC non-fiction and mysteries from the publisher for review. 

The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution by David Wooton, published September 15, 2015 by Harper
(T)he Scientific Revolution, and how it came to change the way we understand ourselves and our world.

Curtains Up: Agatha Christie, A Life in the Theatre by Julius Green, to be released December 1, 2015 by Harper
Julius Green raises the curtain on Christie’s towering contribution to popular theatre, an element of her work previously disregarded by biographers and historians.

Dead to the Last Drop: A Coffeehouse Mystery #15 by Cleo Coyle, to be released December 1, 2015 by Berkley
After the White House asks coffeehouse manager and master roaster Clare Cosi to consult on the coffee service for a Rose Garden Wedding, she discovers a historic pot was used as a CIA “dead drop” decades before. Now long-simmering secrets boil over, scalding Clare and the people around her…

The Readaholics and the Poirot Puzzle: A Book Club Mystery #2 by Laura DiSilverio, to be released December 1, 2015  by NAL
Agatha Christie is on the book club’s reading list in the latest from the author of The Readaholics and the Falcon Fiasco. This time, Amy-Faye and her friends might have to read between the lines to catch a killer.

I could consider myself a readaholic, as do most book bloggers, and was drawn to the title of this new series!

Currently reading: I am now listening to an audio book, Big Little Lies, women's fiction by Liane Moriarty and finding the three main characters very interesting. 
Finished: I have just finished Greg Iles's suspenseful Natchez Burning and want to read the next in this trilogy of the southern states during the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, The Bone Tree. 

The weather is getting cooler and so the flannels are coming out. Reading weather! How about your reading? 

Book Review: Billionaire Blend by Cleo Coyle

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B; choose two teaser sentences from your current read.

Billionaire Blend

How can it be? This club of the rich and powerful has been completely duped. Someone's passed off this dud of a bean as the Village Blend's signature Ambrosia, which it decidedly is not! Not even close! 

"Clare?" Eric said, obviously sensing my distress. 

Scene or not, I could not let this situation stand. "Please call the waiter back." (ch. 31)

Billionaire Blend by Cleo Coyle is the 13th Coffeehouse Mystery, a stand alone cozy with the coffee house theme. Set in Manhattan, the novels follow owners Clare Cosi and her ex-husband Matteo Allegro, along with Matteo's enigmatic mother, who are all co-owners of the successful coffee house, The Village Blend.

In this novel, Clare helps save the life of online game app and tech wizard, Eric Thorner, who is injured in her coffeehouse when a car bomb goes off outside, killing Eric's female chauffeur. Clare jets all over the world to exotic coffee growing locations in South America, Jamaica, Africa, and Asia, sampling coffee to find the right beans to create the Billionaire Blend, a blend Eric is planning to create and market exclusively to the very rich.

Clare's love interest, the detective Mike Quinn, helps with the solving of the car bombing and its link to Eric and his high tech businesses. Matchmaking for her daughter Joy is another concern for Clare, and the subplot takes on Clare's reuniting Joy with her true love.

Recommendations: I liked going on whirl wind trips around the globe with Clare and learning about different types of coffees and how they are grown and produced. The trips are never dull, the characters are always intriguing, and the plot does keep you on your toes, just like a cup of strong coffee. You can tell that Cleo Coyle is an experienced cozy writer as she takes you effortlessly into her world, in this case around the world with coffee. A five star rating, in my books.

Thanks to Berkley and Penguin for a review copy of this book, which will be released in paperback August 5, 2014. 

Book Review: French Pressed by Cleo Coyle

French Pressed

French Pressed is a coffeehouse mystery by Cleo Coyle, featuring Clare Cosi, owner of a coffeehouse in Greenwich Village, New York.


Clare keeps busy managing her shop and keeping an eye on her daughter Joy, who has just landed an internship as a cook at a well-known restaurant. Joy has caught the eye of the restaurant's famous chef Tommy Keitel, but he is married and many years Joy's senior. Clare decides to work for Chef Keitel too, providing coffee and desserts for the restaurant, just to stay close and keep an eye on Joy.

Plot: The murder of a young cook intern, a friend of Joy's, rattles everyone and Clare tries to protect her daughter while giving Joy the leeway she needs to feel independent. Joy however become the suspect in a sedond murder involving the restaurant, and Clare goes all out to prove her innocent.

Rating: This is the sixth in the popular coffeehouse series. The reader becomes caught up in the relationship between Clare and her daughter, an aspiring chef, and in the world of gourmet food, gourmet coffees, and the high-end restaurant business. An engaging novel that keeps the reader in suspense to the very end, French Pressed is well worth reading, not only for the plot but also for tips on pairing good coffee and delicious desserts.

I give this cozy mystery 4 stars.

Book Review: Expresso Shot by Cleo Coyle

Espresso Shot by Cleo Coyle, seventh in the series, published September 30, 2008. Set in Greenwich village, NYC.

Clare Cosi and her ex-husband Matt jointly run an upscale coffeeshop in Manhattan. Matt's about to remarry and begs Clare to stay close to his fiancee, who might be in danger from unknown persons. Clare herself is involved with a policeman, Mike, so she doesn't mind that much though it keeps her from managing her coffeeshop.

Lots of coffee talk in this novel. Mochaccino - espresso with chocolate syrup, steamed milk, foam, topped with whipped cream. Doppio expresso - double shot of espresso. Hazelnut-toffee latte with foam. Macchiato - espresso dotted with a spoonful of foamed milk.

Don't think I've heard of those much.